Bangor homeless woman dies from hypothermia, alcoholism

Bangor Daily News | BDN

Bangor Daily News | BDN

(BANGOR DAILY NEWS PHOTO BY KEVIN BENNETT)
CAPTION
A homeless woman slumps on a log after her male companion passed out while drinking at The Pines on Thursday, November 19, 2009. The Pines is a wooded area near the I-95 Hammond St. exit that is frequented by homeless people who live in make-shift campsites. It is also the site where Stephen James killed a fellow homeless man, Clyde Worster, in May of 2008. (Bangor Daily News/Kevin Bennett)

BANGOR, Maine — The state medical examiner’s office has issued the cause of death for a homeless woman whose body was found last week in a wooded area in Bangor.

Jayne Blackington, 48, died from hypothermia and chronic alcoholism, a spokesman said Monday.

According to Bangor police, Blackington was found early Thursday morning in a wooded area off Hammond Street known locally as “The Pines.”

She was found by another homeless person who notified police, Bangor police Sgt. Chip Hodges said Friday. Temperatures on the night before Blackington was found reached into the low 30s. It also rained during parts of the night.

The Pines is a strip of wooded area between Interstate 95 and Corporate Drive near Bangor International Airport, where homeless people are known to hang out and camp.

Blackington appeared in a photograph that was published in the Bangor Daily News in November, along with a news story about homelessness in Bangor. Her last name, however, was not published.

Blackington was known to stay at the Acadia Recovery Community and at the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter, officials from both facilities said last week.